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Review: Exceptional piece. Highly recommended. I wish I have read this book in the last five years I would have not messed up, but notwithstanding am getting revived by Dr. Myles book. I will by every means avoid yoking with those those of different values, mindset and spiritual beliefs. I will be intentional about soulical and spiritual bonding. While engaged I will work so hard to have a common ground on finance, parenting and education. I bless the Lord for the insight via this book. From Yola Adamawa State Nigeria.
- gayaure obadiah (a year ago)
About the Book
"Waiting and Dating" by Myles Munroe is a Christian book that teaches readers about the importance of patience and intentionality in relationships. Munroe emphasizes the value of waiting for the right partner and taking the time to build a strong foundation for a successful relationship. He also provides practical guidance on how to navigate the complexities of dating and offers insights on how to cultivate healthy and fulfilling relationships.
Gregory Thaumaturgus
Gregory the Wonderworkerâs Early life
Gregory was born in a Pontus, a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in the modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey, around 212-13. His was a wealthy home and his parents named him Theodore (Gift of God) despite their pagan beliefs. When he was 14 years old his father died and soon after, he and his brother, Athenodorus, were anxious to study law at Beirut, Lebanon, then one of the four of five famous schools in the Hellenic world.
Influence of Origen
However, on the way, they first had to escort their sister to rejoin her husband, who was a government official assigned to Caesarea in Palestine (modern Haifa, Israel). When they arrived they learned that the celebrated scholar Origen, head of the catechetical school of Alexandria, lived there.
Inquisitiveness led them to hear and speak with the Origen and his irresistible charm quickly won their hearts. They soon dropped their desires for a life in Roman law, became Christian believers and pupils of Origen, learning philosophy and theology, for somewhere between five and eight years. Origen also baptised Gregory.
Pastor (then Bishop) of Neoceasarea
Gregory returned to his native Pontus with the intention of practicing oratory, but also to write a book proving the truth of Christianity, revealing his evangelistic heart. But his plans were disrupted when locals noticed his passion for Christ and his spiritual maturity. There were just seventeen Christians in Neoceasarea when Gregory arrived and this small group persuaded him to lead them as their bishop. (âbishopâ simply meant a local overseer). At the time, Neocaesarea was a wicked, idolatrous province.
Signs of the Spirit
By his saintly life, his direct and lively preaching, helping the needy and settling quarrels and complaints, Gregory began to see many converts to Christ. But it was the signs and wonders that particularly attracted people to Christ.
En route to Neocaesarea from Amasea, Gregory expelled demons from a pagan temple, its priest converted to Christ immediately.
Once, when he was conversing with philosophers and teachers in the city square, a notorious harlot came up to him and demanded payment for the sin he had supposedly committed with her. At first Gregory gently remonstrated with her, saying that she perhaps mistook him for someone else.
But the loose woman would not be silenced. He then asked a friend to give her the money. Just as the woman took the unjust payment, she immediately fell to the ground in a demonic fit, and the fraud became evident. Gregory prayed over her, and the devil left her. This was the beginning of Gregoryâs miracles. It was at this time he became known as âGregory Thaumaturgus,â âGregory the Miracle Workerâ (or Wonderworker).
At one point Gregory wanted to flee from the worldly affairs into which influential townsmen persistently sought to push him. He went into the desert, where by fasting and prayer he developed an intimacy with God and received gifts of knowledge, wisdom and prophecy. He loved life in the wilderness and wanted to remain in solitude with God until the end of his days, but the Lord willed otherwise.
His theological contribution
Though he was primarily an evangelist and pastor, Gregory also had a deep theological understanding.
His principal work âThe Exposition of Faithâ, was a theological apology for Trinitarian belief. It incorporated his doctrinal instructions to new believers, expressed his arguments against heretical groups and was widely influential amongst leaders in the Patristic period: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and Gregory of Nyssa (The Cappadocian Fathers). It was the forerunner of the Nicene Creed that was to appear in the early 4th century.
In summary
He gave himself to the task of the complete conversion of the population of his diocese. The transformation in Neocaesarea was astonishing. Persuasive preaching, numerous healings and miraculous signs had a powerful effect. Such was his success that it was said that when Gregory became bishop (c 240) he found only seventeen Christians in his diocese; when he died only seventeen remained pagan (Latourette 1953:76).
Basil the Greatâs Testimony
Basil the Great (330-379, Bishop of Caesarea, in his work âOn the Spiritâ wrote the following account of Gregory the wonder-worker.
âBut where shall I rank the great Gregory, and the words uttered by him? Shall we not place among Apostles and Prophets a man who walked by the same Spirit as they; who never through all his days diverged from the footprints of the saints; who maintained, as long as he lived, the exact principles of evangelical citizenship?
I am sure that we shall do the truth a wrong if we refuse to number that soul with the people of God, shining as it did like a beacon in the Church of God: for by the fellow-working of the Spirit the power which he had over demons was tremendous, and so gifted was he with the grace of the word âfor obedience to the faith among. . .the nations.â that, although only seventeen Christians were handed over to him, he brought the whole people alike in town and country through knowledge to God.
He too by Christâs mighty name commanded even rivers to change their course, and caused a lake, which afforded a ground of quarrel to some covetous brethren, to dry up. Moreover, his predictions of things to come were such as in no wise to fall short of those of the great prophets. To recount all his wonderful works in detail would be too long a task. By the superabundance of gifts, wrought in him by the Spirit, in all power and in signs and in marvels, he was styled a second Moses by the very enemies of the Church.
Thus, in all that he through grace accomplished, alike by word and deed, a light seemed ever to be shining, token of the heavenly power from the unseen which followed him. To this day he is a great object of admiration to the people of his own neighborhood, and his memory, established in the churches ever fresh and green, is not dulled by length of time. (Schaff and Wace nd., Series 2. 8:46-47).
âGregory was a great and conspicuous lamp, illuminating the church of God.â âBasil the Great.
how to find joy in your work
âIn the beginning, God created the heavens and the earthâ (Genesis 1:1). One of the sadder experiences in our fallen states is so easily losing our sense of wonder in the most familiar things â like the first verse in the Bible, as laden with glory as it is. We easily stop pondering it because we think we understand it, even though we may have only scratched the surface of its meaning. Has it ever hit you that the first verse in the Bible is about work  â what God calls his creative activity (Genesis 2:2)? Or that the very first work undertaken is described as creative  â not drudgery to avoid? Or that God really enjoyed  his work? The more we think about the whole first chapter of Genesis, the more glorious things we see regarding how God views his  work, and the wonderful, liberating implications it has on how we are to view our  work. God Works for Joy So where do we get the idea that God enjoys his work? From the last verse of the first chapter in the Bible: And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31) No, the word âjoyâ isnât explicitly there, but itâs there. God doesnât have sin-disordered affections and emotions like we do. God always experiences the appropriate joy from good work (Philippians 2:13) â even his brutal work on the cross (Hebrews 12:2). And being made in his image, we also receive joy from his work (Psalm 92:4). Itâs amazing to think about: the very first thing the Bible teaches us about God is that he engaged in incredibly vigorous, prolonged, creative work, and he enjoyed  itâ both the work itself and the fruit of his work. God never works just to get a paycheck. God never works to prove himself out of some kind of internal insecurity. He never works to get something he needs, for he provides everything for his creation out of his abundance (Acts 17:25). Godâs work is always the overflow of his joy in being the triune God. And as Jonathan Edwards said, âIt is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain that it is inclined to overflowâ (Godâs Passion for His Glory, 165). God works for the immediate and ultimate joy of it! Weâre Designed to Work for Joy And hereâs where the wonderful, liberating implications for us come in. God made us in his image and gives us work to do â work thatâs like his: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, âBe fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.â (Genesis 1:27â28) God created us to do work similar to his work and to experience from work similar benefits, appropriate to our capacities. Our work is to be creative  (âbe fruitful and multiplyâ), vigorous  (âhave dominion . . . subdueâ), and give us joy  (God âblessedâ us with his mandate). God always meant for our work to be sharing with him in his work, and sharing his joy. We arenât meant to work just to get a paycheck, or to prove our worth, or to gain our identity because weâre insecure or prideful. God didnât design work to be a drudgery, or a necessary evil. That disease infected our work when we fell from grace. What Destroys Our Joy in Work A curse infected our work the day our original forebears trusted the viperâs promise over Godâs: âBecause you have . . . eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, âYou shall not eat of it,â cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.â (Genesis 3:17â19) This is work as we experience it in this age: lots of sweat-producing effort yielding lots of thorns and thistles. The ground (or its equivalent for us) fights us, our tools fail us, our indwelling, prideful or slothful sin inhibits us, our frail bodies weaken us, other sinners impede us, demons assail us. Like all of creation, our work is subjected to futility by God (Romans 8:20). This is why we often resent or even hate work: our sin and the curse make it so hard. So we avoid work, or we turn it into a pragmatic, mercenary enterprise to buy something or to give us an identity we believe will bring us joy. But thatâs not what work is for. We are not meant to prostitute our work to get money or status. God meant our work to creatively and vigorously steward some part of his creation, to be a means of providing for our needs and serve others, and to bring us joy. And God has made that possible, even in this futile age, no matter our circumstances. What Restores Our Joy in Work Here is stunning good news, which brings unconquerable hope, for every worker who will believe it: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58) Wait, our labor is not  in vain? Isnât that what futility is? Yes! And part of the gospel is that labor done âin the Lordâ is not in vain because it cannot ultimately be derailed by the curse of sin. What is labor done âin the Lordâ? Does that only apply to âkingdom workâ? Yes. But âkingdom workâ encompasses everything  Christians do: Whatever you do , work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23â24) This means God wants every  work we undertake, no matter who we are or what we do, to be a âwork of faithâ (2 Thessalonians 1:11), done in the strength he supplies (1 Peter 4:11). We give ourselves wholly to God, knowing he bought us with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20), and we do the work he gives our hands to do for his sake. For we serve the Lord Christ, not men and not money. Wherever You Work Even though we still suffer the effects of the curse, the death and resurrection of Jesus, which redeems all things for Christians, liberates our faith-fueled labors from being in vain, and causes them to work for our eternal good and joy (Romans 8:28). He  restores our joy in our work. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, whatever  God gives your hands to do today, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the creative, vigorous, joy-producing work of the Lord.
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